11

Excerpt of a letter by John Nelson, Methodist missionary at the Woodville Mission
4 March 1886
Pigeon Lake, Alberta

12

John Nelson's 11 years in the region occured in a time of difficulty and relocation for Aboriginal peoples. Although isolated and remote, even the Riel Resistance did not entirely bypass the Woodville Missions. John Nelson advised the members of the community to not get involved in the struggle. Nelson later wrote:

I advised them to pitch off on a hunt for a short time . . . While the tents were being pulled down and the horses packed, the head men met at the mission house, unsolicited, and asked me to write a letter to Gov. Dewdney, assuring him of their loyalty to the Government. Some of them expressed deep regret at leaving. One man said, 'My heart is sore leaving our church and school. I tell you this from my heart not with my lips only.' In times like the present, we feel the safest places are with those with whom we have been labouring.

John Nelson died in Woodbridge, Ontario in 1927, aged 78 years.